1. Field of the Invention
The present general inventive concept relates to a fusing device that fuses a toner image transferred onto a recording medium by using heat and pressure, and an electrophotographic image forming apparatus including the same.
2. Description of the Related Art
An electrophotographic image forming apparatus forms a latent image on a surface of a photosensitive medium by irradiating light demodulated according to image information onto the photosensitive medium and forms a visible toner image by supplying toner to the latent image. Then, the toner image is transferred onto a recording medium and fused on the recording medium while passing through a fusing device.
The fusing device fuses the toner image on the recording medium by applying heat and pressure to the transferred toner image. The fusing device includes a heating unit and a pressing roller, such that the pressing roller forms a fusing nib by contacting the heating unit. The heating unit generally includes a fusing belt that is rotated by being driven by the pressing roller, and a heat source, such as a halogen lamp, which is disposed inside the fusing belt. The heat source heats the fusing belt via convection and radiation through air.
The fusing device conventionally has a low heating efficiency, because heat is transferred from the heat source to the fusing belt through air. Moreover, the fusing device has a large heat capacity, which further prevents a rapid temperature rising performance with the fusing device.
In order to realize a high-speed operation of the image forming apparatus, a fusing device that rapidly increases the temperature and a method doing the same may be considered.